Cheers and Jeers

Yellen to Lead Fed; Undue Strip Searches in Chicago

By WeNews staff

Saturday, October 12, 2013

President Obama has nominated Janet L. Yellen to lead the Federal Reserve. She would be the first woman in charge of the nation's money supply. In Chicago a sheriff's office has been accused of conducting videotaped strip searches without due cause.

Cheers

President Barack Obama on Oct. 9 announced what he called perhaps his most important economic decision, nominating Janet L. Yellen to lead the Federal Reserve system and be his independent co-steward of the economy, calling her "one of the nation's foremost economists and policy makers," The New York Times reported. The nomination will put Yellen on course to be the first woman to lead the Federal Reserve in the institution's 100-year history. Read more in the Women's eNews story "Yellen Stars on Twitter, 'Brains, Integrity' Tweeted."

More News to Cheer This Week:

On the International Day of the Girl Child, UN Women and the World Association of Girl Guides and Girl Scouts launched "Voices against Violence," a new non-formal education curriculum on ending violence against women and girls and educating young people about prevention efforts, the UN announced Oct. 10.

California Gov. Jerry Brown signed into law a requirement that the state inform pregnant women about how chemical exposure can compromise a healthy pregnancy by affecting prenatal development and contributing to later-life diseases, Breast Cancer Fund reported Oct. 9.

Iran's President Hassan Rouhani said the country's police should keep a lower profile in their enforcement of the rules for women to cover up their bodies, Singapore's Straits Times reported Oct. 9.

A public sector bank run by and for women is set to launch two more branches in the Indian state of Assam, Al Jazeera reported Oct. 8.

In the first Harvard Law Review admission process to include gender-based affirmative action, 17 of the 46 editors are women compared to last year when nine of 44 editors were women, The Harvard Crimson reported Oct. 7.

Four Saudi women will be the first practicing female lawyers in the country, Australia's The Age reported Oct. 7.

Jeers

In Chicago's LeSalle County, several women have accused the sheriff's office of conducting videotaped strip searches without due cause, The Chicago Tribune reported Oct. 8. Thirty three-year-old Dana Holmes was the first woman to sue the county after arrested for a DUI and consequently stripped, citing emotional harm. Attorney Terry Ekl lodged an emergency order to force preservation of video surveillance in the jail.

More News to Jeer This Week:

A serving British soldier, Edwin Robert Mee of Croydon, London, has been charged with sex offenses - including two counts of rape - against 11 women, BBC News reported Oct. 11.

A national survey has found that uterine fibroids have a disproportionate impact on African American women, causing more severe symptoms, interfering with their daily life and causing them to miss work, Mary Ann Liebert, Inc. reported in a press release.

A Steubenville, Ohio, school employee has been charged with interfering with a criminal matter related to the rape of a 16-year-old girl by two high school football players last year, CBS reported Oct. 8.

During the U.N. session for the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women, Cambodia was put in the spotlight, The Cambodia Daily reported Oct. 8. Women's advocacy groups criticized Cambodia's lax attitude towards the convention's resolutions.

Dick Costolo, Twitter's CEO, said that Twitter's seniority consists only of men because hiring women goes beyond just "checking a box," The New York Times reported Oct. 7.

Despite the resolution to end child brides, designed during the recent United Nations General Assembly session, the Malaysian legal system is increasingly condoning the practice, Malaysia's The Star reported Oct. 7.

Noted:

The decision not to reward Pakistani teen activist Malala Yousafzai with the Nobel Peace Prize has disappointed many across the world, except the Pakistani Taliban, NBC News reported, Oct. 11. Those who tried to kill her said the decision was "very good news" and praised the committee for "not selecting this immature girl for this famous award." Yousafzai was a favorite to win the prize for her campaign for girls' right to education, but she was edged out by the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons.

Women Corporate Directors, a global community of more than 2,500 directors and the largest organization of female corporate directors worldwide, recently aggregated the market capitalization of the public companies on whose boards their members serve. They found that the number totaled almost $8 trillion.

Gender discrimination and women's rights breaches have been linked to stalemates in the eradication of world hunger, The Guardian reported Oct. 9.

Women from the feminist group Femen in Madrid staged a topless protest in the Spanish Parliament against the conservative government's planned abortion law reform, Singapore's Straits Times reported.

A study finds that women created most of the ancient cave art, National Geographic reported Oct. 9. Most of the hand imprints that are part of ancient cave art were found to be made by women.

In a survey with almost 900 subjects from the U.S. and the Netherlands, males in heterosexual couples had lower self-esteem and were more dismal when their female partners excelled in anything, CBS reported Oct. 8.

Origins of the Ashkenazi community are linked to European women, The New York Times reported Oct. 8. DNA studies indicated Jewish communities were founded by men with Y chromosomal DNA from the Near East.

Fayhan al-Ghamdi, a Saudi TV religious personality, was sentenced to eight years in prison and 600 lashes for torturing, molesting and beating his 5-year-old daughter Lama to death, BBC reported Oct. 7.

Women of the Wall, a group of Jewish women mobilizing efforts to lead their own prayer services at the Western Wall, have proposed the creation of a third section where men and women can pray together and make up equal representation on the board, The Jerusalem Post reported Oct. 7.

Reporter Paul Conroy has written a memoir about Marie Colvin, an American award-winning journalist and war correspondent who was killed in the Syrian city of Homs, The Daily Beast reported Oct. 9.

In Memory:

Karen Strauss Cook, the first female equities trader at Goldman Sachs Group Inc., died of the neurodegenerative disease supranuclear palsy, The New York Times reported Oct. 7.